14 DAY TRIAL // No, we're not going surfing or swimming anywhere now! The main topics will be sound and sound processing. If you are still wondering where's the link between waves and sound, here you go...
Sound is defined to be a disturbance of mechanical energy that propagates through matter as a wave and the properties of the sound waves are frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude and velocity or speed.
Since we solved the problem about the link between sound and waves, let's move on to the second part, sound processing. I won't give you a definition, but I will introduce you a sound processing tool instead. I am sure you will have the answer for the "What is sound processing?" question in the end, but in order to have an end we need a starting point first, so let's get this show rollin'!
Name of our subject: GoldWave. Age: version 5.14. Occupation: digital audio editing. Race: computer software. The target has been identified, let's start analyzing it deeper.
The installation kit weighs only 2.2MB, and this size can be considered extremely small when we think about the multitude of effects available. The setup process is very easy for everybody, and once completed, you can start the shareware version of this program. You can test it for free until you reach a limit of 150 commands per session or a 2000 total, when the program will cease to function.
GoldWave's interface initially displays three types of windows: the main window, the control and the sound windows.
The main window contains a menu bar, toolbars and information/status bars, while keeping the sound windows together inside the main workspace.
The control window contains the sound device controls and also real-time visuals, while the sound windows are opened each time a sound file is opened.
But what actions can be performed on your sound files using GoldWave? Let's start with the basic ones...
In the Effects menu you will find functions that enable you to change volume, playback rate or resample your sound file between 1000 and 192000 Hz. Each of the available functions in GoldWave has built in presets, and you can save your own settings as additional ones too.
Advanced effects come into a larger crowd, and most of them are known to everyone using a computer for playing music from time to time, but not necessarily.
Who hasn't heard about echo, reverb or voice removal? Of course there are much more available effects than these. You can also count in mechanize, doppler, flanger, interpolate, time warp and many more.
Using effects is very easy, you must select the area of your file you want to apply it to, then you can choose one of the available presets or adjust the settings as needed and hit the OK button. Before you hit that button, think again: are you sure? If not, and you want to apply an effect to an entire file, don't waste your time! There's a preview button right inside the effect window, so don't hesitate to use it.
While playing audio files, real-time visuals can prove quite useful for experienced users and an eye candy for the beginners. In Goldwave you can have bar, waveform, spectrogram, VU meter, spectrum and other visuals.
Other nice features include batch processing of your audio files, multiple undo levels, CD ripping, effect chains, support for large file editing and more.
There are a lot of audio file formats supported by GoldWave, and I will name only some of them here: WAV, MP3, Windows Media Audio, Ogg, FLAC, AIFF, AU, Monkey's Audio. Satisfied?
I know this is not the program to face Adobe Audition or Sound Forge, but for an average computer user it's a perfect digital audio editor and I am sure that even professionals can perform basic and mid-range tasks with it.
Prepare your surf board and...I mean prepare your sound files, computer and sound system and climb the sound waves with GoldWave!
The Good
GoldWave is small, fast, powerful, but also easy to use. Add a good price to these and you will get a great combination for success.
The Bad
This program's Help file doesn't have any screenshots and I think that importing sound from video files could be a nice addition to the features portfolio.
The Truth
I used GoldWave even with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, almost 10 years ago, and it always helped me to perform small sound processing tasks as file conversions, sound level normalizing, hiss removal and more. It evolved with each new version and I hope to see this happening in the future too. I think 2000 commands should be enough for everyone to see what GoldWave can do, so don't wait any longer: get it now!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
